Attempt to Destroy Judge Kavanaugh Fails

False accusations are nothing new: since the beginning of time, people have been incarcerated and at times, put to death by being falsely accused.

After the preliminary confirmation vote on Friday, Senator Susan Collins stood up and explained why she was voting in favor of the Judge Kavanaugh nomination: rule of law, presumption of innocence, and no credible supporting evidence in the outlandish allegations made by Blasey-Ford. After a 50 to 48 vote in favor of now Justice Brett Kavanaugh,
he was sworn in as the 114th US Supreme Court Justice.

Rule of law and due process is alive and well in Monroe County--professional law enforcement guidelines have at times, exposed false allegations by 911 callers. New guidelines are a stark contrast to numerous mysterious incidents and shoddy investigations during the previous administration--see "Equal Opportunity Incompetency" 

The sheriff's incident reports now go through a 'chain of command' review to weed out false claims, bias, and possible field-officer misconduct.

A brief description of 2 recent incident reports described below:

A woman accused her male companion of improperly touching her daughter, the male denied the accusation. During questioning by the responding officer, the female admitted to using meth earlier in the day, and produced two baggies containing meth, needles, and other illegal drugs. After transporting the female's two daughter to the hospital, a medical evaluation concluded there was no abuse detected.

During a property line dispute, a recent-move in from Florida walked up to his neighbor and made threats of bodily injury--then called 911 to report he had been 'assaulted.' 

Video evidence showed what really happened, and he was charged with simple assault.

A further investigation showed the false accuser had engaged in similar activities in Florida, and had resigned from his position as a school maintenance supervisor after being accused of theft.

Former Sheriff Bill Bivens' 3rd Strike Out

Sheriff Bill Bivens

Part history and perhaps a political obituary: remembered as a life-long public servant

Although he said in 2016 he was out of politics forever, in 2018 he tried for the third, and perhaps the last time to get back in the Sheriff's seat.

To anyone that has met him, he is like-able and has a generational history in Monroe County--his father was a former MCSD Sheriff--Bill also served as a county commissioner. After serving as Tellico Plains Police Chief, he decided to run against the 3 term sheriff Doug Watson in 2006, and he won.


Complaints against Watson had escalated to the point that even his supporters felt it was time for a change--two incidents, one in Madisonville and the other in *Coker Creek swung the balance in Bivens' favor--well-connected actors, in criminology known as the 'criminal elite', were getting away with a 'slap in the hand'...county wide corruption affected every aspect of society, and led to the change of the guard 2006-2014 Bivens' tenure as Sheriff.
There's no doubt, Bill will be remembered as a good man, who tried to make a positive difference in Monroe County.

There is more detail in the Coker Creek incident, but the one in Madisonville had similar components.

*March of 2006, a mid-twenties white male, son of a 'crony' of then sheriff Watson rolls his truck off the bank on Hwy 68 near what at the time was, the  'Davis Store'--flees the scene and runs home to hide-out...during the next hour, the cops try to flush the suspect out and arrest him. It escalates to the suspect shooting at a combined force of 4 police agencies (THP, MCSD, TPPD, even a cruiser from Vonore PD showed up and a WATE news crew.) 

Watson forbids the officers to shoot back, even though the officers said some of the shots 'whizzed by close to their heads'. The suspect finally passes out/faints, but was never injured and gets taken into custody by Sgt. Mike Morgan. 

It was the only time that a crew from Knoxville based WATE-TV showed up during an active crime scene in Coker Creek...
the shooter was only charged with 'reckless endangerment' and received a $100 fine from Judge Reed Dixon...(that's less than the average speeding ticket.)

MCSD Deputies Memorial Day Manhunt

While you were enjoying your holiday weekend barbecue on Memorial Day 2018, an alert deputy spotted a fugitive who was wanted on a VOP (violation of probation) from a drug related arrest.

The chase started near Ball Play/Belltown road heading towards Tellico Plains--for a short time, there was a good visual on the suspect's truck, then after about 20 minutes the getaway vehicle was spotted abandoned in the woods. 

According to an employee at the health dept, the Belltown/Ball Play road community has been one of the worst areas in the county involving drug related incidents.

You can thank the efforts of the deputies in sheriff's dept. and the county's city police depts. who continue to wage war on the drug epidemic. 

Brian "Wormy" Hodge: the Most Powerful Man in Monroe County?

The law of un-intended consequences...could he 'swing' the election if he decides to "talk" to authorities?

... Just when it was getting down to the wire in the start of the 2018 Sheriff's election, the feds have announced they now have even more evidence that ties "Wormy" Hodge to the 2014 vote buying case. 

Update: Tommy Jones wins the Republican primary sheriff's race: It may be the first time that a "Jim Comey" type strategy has had such an impact on an election since 2016--Did U.S. District Attorney Douglas Overbey violate DOJ guidelines?...
The traditional Justice Department protocol is to avoid taking investigative action in the run-up to an election that could affect it's outcome.

Soon after the press release, support for Randy White dwindled throughout the county.



U.S. District Attorney Douglas Overbey has announced they now have DNA on an envelope that was used for absentee voting--a saliva sample shows an acceptable probability that it was Hodge's DNA smeared on the envelope.

Federal authorities have a 'trump card' (no pun intended) in their arsenal during investigations which local authorities don't have: it is known as 18 U.S.C. 1001...False Statements to a Federal Investigator--in other words, lying during questioning is a crime, and if they can prove you lied--it's a felony. This is how Martha Stewart was snared during her insider trading trial--there wasn't enough to convict her for insider trading, but they could show that she lied during questioning, and she served 5 months (of a 12 month) sentence in federal prison.